E15 Bali Hearing on the Functioning of the WTO: Towards a consultative mechanism in the WTO

Organisers

In association with:

Session Objectives

The E15 expert group on the Functioning of the WTO is designed to produce a series of ideas for institutional reform of the intergovernmental trade organisation, for it to continue to play an important role in global trade rulemaking. The hearing will focus on one of the current proposals; the creation of an intermediate body with consultative character to provide guidance, ideas, impulses, agenda-setting and some regime management functions. E15 experts will explain their vision for the intermediate body, policy makers will comment, to be followed by an interactive dialogue with the audience.

Joakim Reiter is Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. He is also the current Chairman of the Trade Policy Review Body and, hence, member of the “troika”, as well as Chair of the Working Party on the Accession of Liberia. In 2012, he chaired the Council for Trade in Services.
Mr Reiter was Head of the Trade Policy Unit and Minister Counsellor at the Swedish Representation to the European Union between 2008 and 2011, representing Sweden in the Trade Policy Committee of the Council, which he chaired during the Swedish Presidency in 2009.
Prior to that, from 2004 to 2008, Mr Reiter was posted to the European Commission, DG TRADE. In this capacity, he served as EU negotiator for various trade agreements and was lead negotiator, inter alia, for goods in the EU-Korea FTA, as well as non-agricultural market access (NTBs) and rules for regional trade agreements within the Doha Development Agenda (WTO). In 2006, he served as vice-Chairman of the OECD Working Party of the Trade Committee.
Mr Reiter has also worked on various trade issues and in different positions at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden. He was Special Advisor to, first, the Minister for Trade and, later, the Minister for Industry and Trade from 2001 to 2004. In that position, he was assigned with drafting the Government’s Globalization Strategy, its Communication to Parliament on Financial Stability and its Strategy on OECD matters, as well as participated in the development of Sweden’s Policy for Global Development (aid). During the Swedish Presidency in 2001, Mr. Reiter represented Sweden in UNCTAD and in the EU’s negotiations with Mercosur and Chile.
Mr Reiter is a graduate of the London School of Economics (MSc Econ.), UK, and LundUniversity (MA Pol.Sc.), Sweden. He has written academic articles, as well as one book, on different trade, investment and financial issues.

Mr. Matus has served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO), to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) since October 2005. He is currently Chair of the WTO General Council. He has also chaired the Committee on Trade and Environment in Special Sessions and the Working Group on the accession of Ukraine to the WTO.
Previously, he has served as Director for Bilateral and Multilateral Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chief Trade Negotiator of the Chilean FTAs with China, European Union, EFTA, Korea, Trade Coordinator for Chile-US and Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), as well as APEC Senior Official (2000-2005), and chairman of various groups including the World Wine Trade Group (WWTG).
From 1994 to 1998 he was Minister in charge of Trade at the Embassy of Chile to the United States in Washington D.C. His other posts have been Trade Advisor to the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs (1992-1993) and Delegate to the GATT during the Uruguay Round negotiations (1987-1991).
He has been Professor and Visiting Professor of Law and International Relations at various universities in Chile and the United States.
He has a Law degree from Universidad de Chile (1980) and another in Law, Economics, and International Politics at Oxford University, Queen Elizabeth House, St. Edmund Hall (1986-1987).

Mr Abbott has spent more than 40 years working in the GATT multilateral trade system, first in London with the British government and then in Brussels and Geneva with the European Commission. He ended his career as a deputy DG at the WTO from 2002 – 2005, having been previously the deputy Director General in DG Trade at the European Commission and EC Ambassador and head of delegation in Geneva.
Since retiring he has mainly worked with a trade policy think tank in Brussels (ECIPE: the European Centre for International Political Economy) and has written policy papers for them on the Doha Round (2009) and on the WTO Dispute Settlement system (2007). He has been a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and at the European University Institute in Florence. He was for some years on the Board of the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and has lectured at the World Trade Institute in Berne.

Amb. Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mauritius to the UN and other International Organizations in Geneva, including the WTO.
He is the Chief Negotiator of Mauritius for the WTO Doha Development Agenda Negotiations. He has served as Chair of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) for two terms in 2005 and 2006.
He is also since 2007 the Chair of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD). In this capacity, he also chairs the Dedicated Session of the CTD on Aid for Trade and the Work Programme on Small Economies. Ambassador Servansing is also the Coordinator of the ACP Group in Geneva.

Manfred Elsig is Associate Professor in International Relations at the World Trade Institute of the University of Bern. He studied at the Universities of Bern and Bordeaux and earned a degree in political science. He worked from 1997–1999 at the Swiss Federal Office for Foreign Economic Affairs. He later joined the Political Science Institute at the University of Zurich and received his PhD (Dr Phil) in 2002 with a dissertation on European Union trade policy. From 2002–2004 he worked for UBS financial services group and as a personal advisor to the Minister of Economy of Canton Zürich. In 2004–2005 he was a teaching fellow at the International Relations Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. From 2005–2009 he worked as a post-doc fellow at the World Trade Institute and at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. His research focuses primarily on the politics of international trade, regional trade agreements, European trade policy, international organizations, US–EU relations, and private actors in global politics. He has published in international peer-reviewed journals including the European Journal of International Relations, European Union Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Common Market Studies, Review of International Organizations and Review of International Political Economy. He has been visiting lecturer/visiting professor at the University of Zurich, the University of Geneva, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Thunderbird School of Global Management. His courses include international political economy (IPE), international relations theories, international institutions, globalisation and European integration, and research methods.